Infinity
by I-am-LMR
Summary: Sequel to 'Can You Keep a Secret' The Christmas after her secret Valentine struck, Alex takes Bobby to her family's place for the holiday, planning a surprise of her own. Rated K plus for innuendo and mild language. BA RomanceHumor
1. A Partner is Family

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

**(Sequel to 'Can You Keep a Secret?')**

Summary: Sequel to 'Can You Keep a Secret?' The Christmas after her secret Valentine struck, Alex takes Bobby to her family's place for the holiday, planning a surprise of her own. Rated K+ for innuendo and mild language. BA Romance/Humor

Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You there that hasn't read 'Can You Keep a Secret?'. You can't read this yet! Go read CYKAS? (I don't feel like typing out the whole title for the likes 'a you!) before you read this one!) Otherwise you're just going to wonder why these wackos are ranting about PB & J sandwiches and ABBA! Don't you dare scroll down, you little hoodlum!

BTW: Thanks to Confused One for informing me after some research that there is in fact, no "inappropriate fraternization" policy in police departments, and apparently the brass really couldn't care less if their partners are all having affairs. Okay, so that _completely _squishes the premise of Can You Keep a Secret? Umm. Well, everybody else was doing it!

**Chapter 1: A Partner is Family**

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"Earth to Bobby," Alex said from beside him on her sofa. "I asked if you wanted to come with me to my family's for Christmas."

He scratched the back of his neck the way he did when he was nervous. "Uh, yeah," he answered. "I heard you, I mean," he added hastily.

"I know it's a big deal, Bobby, a big thing to ask," she said soothingly. "And I would understand if you didn't want to." She was stroking that little spot right under his ear that she knew would get her exactly what she wanted. "But it's our first Christmas together, together like _this_, I mean, and I want to spend it...together. You've already met Andrea, and she likes you a lot - no scary there. Nathan'll be there. You two should get along well, assuming you've gotten over your little Freudian jealousy spaz." He laughed guiltily.

Then she dropped the biggie. The one she knew perfectly well he wouldn't be able to say 'no' to.

"It would mean a lot to me, Bobby."

They left for her sister's house the next day.

xxxxxxxxx

"There is something I should tell you, Bobby." _She waits till she's got me trapped in the car. _

"I haven't told my old man about us." She glanced sideways for a reaction, not taking her eyes off the road (much). Bobby was unreadable. "He was so proud when I graduated academy, then when I made detective. He's always been extra hard on me as a cop because I'm a woman, and he wants to see me make it in that world." She paused. "_We _know what we have, Bobby. But to a tough as nails cop like my old man, seeing it from the outside, he's going to see me being a female cop sleepin' with her partner. I wanted to wait a while so he could really see what we have, and understand that his daughter isn't just incapable of keeping it in her pants. Or rather, keeping _you _out of them." Bobby started to protest that no one could possibly think she was like that at all. "I _know_, Bobby. But he hasn't seen the way we are.

"He doesn't know, for instance, that I'm doing counterpoint before you actually get a chance to _say _that no one could think that I'm that kind of woman.

"He doesn't know that even though I did notice immediately that you are quite possibly the hottest man on the planet," she said matter of factly. "We got along like competitive siblings for the first year and a half . He doesn't know that we had some kind of mind-meld thing going on when we were still just friends, that we made this bond with our heads first, _then _our hormones. He needs to understand that this is for good," she concluded.

He nodded. She was right. If he had heard about this kind of relationship without knowing the people involved, his first thought would be Scum Cop / Weak Cop. If it were _his _daughter, he'd go ballistic.

Actually, if John Eames's reaction were anything like what Bobby Goren's would be in the same situation-

"Bobby, say something, you're scaring me."

"I was just thinking that you probably saved my life by keeping your mouth shut, that's all."

She smiled. "Relax, Bobby. Our own Captain said, and I quote, 'It's about freakin' time.' I think that's a good indicator of just what kind of relationship this is. Once he sees us together, he'll understand. Long as we keep it PG, anyway," she added with a mock warning glance.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

"Bobby!" This was Andrea, who rushed to hug him. By her, he was as good as part of the family. _At least_, Bobby thought. _I get to ease into this by seeing her first instead of someone I don't_-

"Bobby Goren!" _Here it comes_. This was a slightly built woman in her sixties who rushed up to hug him like she'd known him for years.

"Mom! Don't choke him!" Don't _scare _him, she was saying.

"We met just a bit when you came to get her after Nathan was born," she reminded him needlessly.

"I remember. Good to see you again, Mrs. Eames."

"What's your favorite food? We're having a ham for Christmas day, but I want to make sure we make something you'll like. Andrea's doing most of the cooking and-"

"Don't worry about that: Peanut butter and jelly's my favorite," he said disarmingly. Alex laughed a little. He kept that card front and center on his desk, and she'd caught him reading it occasionally. "But I like everything, really. I have an eclectic palate. I'll try absolutely anything." Alex remembered a comment he'd made once about a live-octopus Korean dish, and figured her family didn't have to worry about putting him off with food.

The clan filed in, the clan filed out, and as soon as he wasn't surrounded, Alex raised an eyebrow, and said, quietly enough that she could be sure no one else would hear, "Doin' okay, Bobby?" He nodded, but looked to Alex like he could use a breather. "I'm going to check on Andrea. I'll be right back." She got a nod before heading to the kitchen.

"Need anything from the store?"

"No, we're good, relax," her sister assured her.

"Rephrasing that, Andrea. Send me to the store."

Andrea raised an eyebrow, but knowing Bobby better than the rest of the family, she nodded. "Nathan'll be back from his other grandma's soon. How 'bout a couple more bottles of apple juice?"

"Owe you one," Alex mouthed as she headed back out into the main room. She put on her best _I hate to ask face _and headed toward Bobby. "Bobby, Andrea wants some more juice from the store before my little backache gets here. Would you go with me?"

"Sure."

"Thanks. 'Preciate it."

"I was about to say the same thing," he mumbled as they headed out the door.

"We'll be right back!" she yelled to the crowd. While her head was turned back, she ran right into someone in the doorway.

"Oh. Dad. Hi."

It might have been possible for Robert Goren to turn a few shades more green than he was at that moment, but not without massive doses of undercooked pork.

She hugged him quickly, then gestured to Bobby. "You remember my partner, Bobby Goren."

The men shook hands. "Good to see you again Officer Ea-"

"John," he said forcefully. "A partner is family, Robert." _ You say that now_, Bobby thought ruefully.

"We were just going to run to the store. We'll be right back."

"Oh, well, I'll go with you. Been too long since I talked with you, Al. Be nice to talk more with you, too, Robert. Don't know much about you yet."

Okay, so the pork wasn't necessary after all.

"Well, we'll be right back, Dad," she started for the car again.

"Yeah, and you'll be surrounded, and I won't be able to talk to just you. Scoot, let's go." He herded them toward his own truck. Alex gave Bobby a mournful look. _I'm really sorry about this_.

Bobby closed his eyes. _This can't get any worse_, he thought

"Guests ride shotgun," John announced. _I was wrong_.

"Dad, don't embarrass him," she pleaded.

"Oh, good grief, Alex, I just want to talk to your partner. You're acting like a fifteen year old bringing home her boyfriend for the first time." They piled into the truck, and hoped John missed the wince on both their faces.

"So, Robert-"

"It's 'Bobby,'" Alex threw out, knowing Bobby never would.

"Oh, okay. Shoulda' told me that, Bobby."

"He's too polite to correct you, Dad. I'm not."

"Does she ever give you a chance to talk?" he wondered jokingly.

"Oh, don't worry, Si-John," he said, more relaxed than he felt. "I talk her ear off like you wouldn't believe. At least when Alex has something to say, it's useful. Or at least funny. I just kind of...um..."

"He can give you more completely useless facts than every edition of Trivial Pursuit combined," she finished proudly. "Did you know that Trivia is the Roman goddess of sorcery, hounds and the crossroads?"

"Um, no, I didn't," John admitted.

"And you never wanted to, didja'?" she said laughing.

And the entire time in the store and during the ride home, the three of them kept laughing. Bobby was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to pretend to John that he and Alex were just friends. _ Not that we're lying to him_, he told himself hastily_. We're just keeping some details out of the press. _

"You're a good guy, Bobby. I'm glad you got stuck with my daughter," he said after they pulled back into the driveway.

Bobby managed to get Alex alone for a moment while John greeted the rest of the family. "When are we going to tell him?"

"_We're _telling him nothing. I'll tell him...well, I might as well tell him now." She read his face. "Relax, Bobby." She squeezed his hand and headed for the house. "Hey, Dad? Can I steal you for a second?" 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"Might want to sit for this one." He did. Alex could see Bobby pacing outside. She could tell he was trying to hear the conversation. "You like Bobby?"

"Nice guy. Great cop from what I've read, too."

"He is," she said seriously. "You can see how well we get along, what a good friend he is to me."

John Eames could plainly read the nervous look on her face. The look said very clearly, _I would rather be getting abducted by aliens who pipe Neil Diamond into a microchip in your ear for twenty three days straight until you are begging them to move on to their second favorite torture, using human heads for ping pong balls... than be telling my father that I am having an affair with a man that I work with._ (This is a loose translation.) She could see this, and wasted no more time getting to the point, and hopefully diffusing the ticking time bomb that was her father's head.

"We're not just friends, Dad." She hastily continued, refuting everything he was about to say before he got a chance.

"It's not like we just got drunk one night and did something stupid. We talked about this for a long time, it wasn't a decision we took lightly. We waited until we were absolutely sure that this was something worth keeping. We've been best friends for years. And nothing's changed at work. Our captain knows."

John Eames kept a poker face. "What did your captain say when he found out?"

"Well, he's the type who prefers that his partners don't get romantically involved. He told us he worries that it puts the partnership in jeopardy. He told us all that, then he said that in our case we should have gotten involved sooner and not wasted so much time."

She decided to leave out the part about the betting pool.

"He sees us working together every day, and he knows we can handle it. We're not teenagers, Dad. We have a mature relationship. Honestly, we spend pretty much every day acting exactly like we did in the store just then. This isn't just some affair.

"I love him, Dad. And it's for good." There. _That felt like a good concluding argument. I think_.

"Exactly how serious is this 'for good' thing?" he asked after a long silence. She glanced nervously around her father to see where Bobby was standing.

xx

Bobby paced outside the open door of the study, waiting anxiously for her to come back into the room. He had caught most of what she'd said. It sounded good. Convincing. But Alex had lowered her voice now, and he couldn't make out what she was saying. _Little meanie._

She came out of the den with a small smile and largely unreadable expression. "He's a little grouchy," she said simply. "It'll be okay."

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Remember that this story wouldn't exist if it weren't for reviews. But don't let that sour you on writing reviews.

Does anyone know Nathan's mommy's name? Or Alex's mom's name? That would help.

Next time:

"You know," he said informatively. "She's half my aunt and half my mommie." He nodded. "Aunt Andie said that means any man who wants her better be good enough by me." He gestured to himself with his thumb, trying to look tough.


	2. Two Little Boys

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

**Chapter 2: Two Little Boys**

Disclaimer: I own CI. 'I do, I do, I do, I do, I do!' Okay, no more ABBA for me. I don't.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Alex looked at her watch for the fifth time in as many minutes. "I can't wait for you to meet my backache," she said smiling. "He'll love you."

"You call him Backache, huh?" He paused in thought. "Well, if we're going to nickname him for physical ailments that he's given us, can I call him Gray Hairs?"

"Ailments? I love your hair." She forced his head down so she could examine it from the top, stroked it. "I loved the black, don't get me wrong, but this is nice. Proud of it, too. You got your first grays because I wasn't there. That'll stroke a girl's ego. But the nickname-" 

He smiled, understanding. "You're reminding him." She nodded.

"Also I needed _something _to call him while I was carrying him and for a while after he was born. His nitwit parents were so indecisive.

"It took forever for them to name that poor kid."

Bobby fidgeted. He still felt like a stranger here. "I'm going to see if Andrea needs help in the kitchen."

Alex understood his reasoning. _Andrea. Known. Comfortable. Doesn't want to rip off choice parts of my anatomy. _She gave them a moment before going into the kitchen herself. She had been about to do the same, as a matter of fact, but didn't want Bobby to think she was following him.

"Oh, good, you're here," he sighed as she came into the room.

"Bobby, you're a guest, no!" Andrea chastised. "Shoo." She swatting him away from the pot roast he was trying to help with.

"Need me to call him off?" Alex asked, amused.

"Tell him guests don't cook, Al."

"Well, this is Denise's house," he reminded her. "You're a guest, too, but here you are. Cooking."

"He's got a point," Alex said, falling into the roll of tentative good cop.

"Anyone the lady of the house has ever called 'puke-nosed snot-face' is _not _a guest," Andrea pointed out judiciously. "Especially if, at the same time, she's trying to beat you senseless for stealing her doll." She paused for a moment. "You're family, but there are distinct levels here, Bobby. Now, you count as a honorary family member as you are loved by one or more family member." She gestured to Alex and herself respectively. "With brownie points for being a cop and a partner. An honorary family member has all the benefits of being a blood Eames with the added perk that we will never allow you do anything that even remotely resembles work."

"And how does a non-blood Eames earn _that _honor?"

He was trying to squeeze closer to the roast, and Andrea calmly swatted away his hand as she continued. "Well, first, he has to be dumb enough to want it." Bobby nodded. "Okay, you are officially at the meal-cooking, kitchen-cleaning, garbage-schlepping, 'get off your lazy butt and do it yourself' level of family member when a blood Eames feels comfortable enough with you to knock you silly."

"Right, 'course. Back to that." Bobby thought about this for a moment. "Your father wants to kill me, doesn't that count for anything?" he wondered casually.

"Nope, to qualify as a family member on the basis of physical abuse, said blood Eames must actually do damage. And no, he doesn't," she added throwing him what she hoped what a reassuring look.

"Oh." He seriously pondered this for a moment, as if taking in the rules and looking for a loophole. He finally sighed, resigning himself to the fact that no one was going to let him help with anything.

Alex rolled her eyes, knowing that the pot roast was just screaming at him to do something with it. Poor guy wasn't going to be happy if the family insisted on treating him like a guest.

_And he's _not _a guest._

"Hey, what're you-" She'd caught Bobby off guard by pulling up the bottom of his sweater, pointing to an elbow shaped bruise on the side of his stomach.

"I did that," she said simply. "Does that count?"

Andrea looked between the two of them, skeptical. "Do I _want _to know?"

She put his shirt back in place. "We were _undercover_, And. He was supposed to be beating me up..."

"And yet he gets the bruises."

"We had it choreographed, but...Sorry, Hon," she appealed.

"It's as okay as the first fifteen times you apologized. So am I a shlepper yet, or what?"

Andrea shrugged. "I'd really rather you just get comfortable, Bobby. I don't want you to feel like you have to."

"Relax, Andie. He won't be happy unless he can do something." Alex passed Bobby a serving fork so he could start arranging the veggies around the bottom of the roast. "He loves cooking; calls it 'edible chemistry,' and he's been trying to get me off takeout for years. Yes, years," she clarified, reading Andrea's look. "He started when I was out with Nathan. Said he wanted to make sure I was well-nourished for the baby..."

"She knows full well I just wanted to come pester her at her place because I couldn't pester her at work. How's that taste?"

"Hm. If I had known you would be so good at this, I would have beaten you up ages ago," Andrea complimented.

Alex, standing behind Bobby while he worked, wrapped her arms under his and squeezed his chest. "You _are _family." She knew what he was thinking about. "He really likes your personality, he likes who you are: You saw that. He's mad at _me_. And it'll pass. Everybody else here just thinks I'm lucky," she said honestly.

"Nathan's here!" Danielle yelled out to the house.

Grinning broadly, Alex hurried to the front hall, dragging Bobby behind her. She caught the little boy up in her arms. "Nathan, hey kid." She gave him a loud kiss on his cheek and he giggled. "Been good, little Backache?" He nodded dutifully.

After putting him down, she waited with Bobby on the side of the room while he was hugged and gushed over by the whole family.

She knelt down gently beside him. "Honey, you know what a partner is, right?" He did. Partner was an early vocabulary word in the Eames house.

"I brought my partner with me for Christmas. Wanna meet him?"

"Brought Bobby?" Bobby smiled in spite of himself. _This guy knows my name. Alex told him about me_. He looked right at Bobby, still standing on the side. He seemed to look right through him. "You," he said, no trace of doubt.

He knelt down next to him, smiling. "Smart little man." He extended a hand. "It's nice to finally meet you, Nathan." Nathan shook.

"Alex said you like cars," he said after a pause.

Bobby grinned. "I love cars."

"I got cars. Wanna see my room?" he asked excitedly.

"Yeah." He hurried up the stairs after the little boy.

"Don't hold him hostage up there all day and bore him to death!" Alex warned, a light smirk on her face.

"He's not going to bore me, Alex," Bobby insisted.

"I meant you," she told Bobby, smiling. "You're going to tell him all about every car since the Model T, and it wouldn't surprise me if you shared your theories on the invention of the wheel, too." 

"He's not gonna bore me, Aunt Alex," the child parroted.

"See, I'm not gonna bore him, Aunt Alex," Bobby replied, pouting. 

xxxxxxx 

He sat cross-legged on the floor. "I should really apologize, Nathan," he said frankly. "I said some pretty mean things about you when you were in your aunt's tummy."

He'd been joking, but to his surprise, Nathan grinned. "She told me that few times. She likes talking about that."

"She likes talking about what a jerk I was, huh?"

"Auntie says 'jealous baby.' Is that the same thing?"

"Yup. I was just grouchy because I needed Alex, and she wasn't there." 

"And because you got stuck with Stupid Priest-Lady," he concluded. "Alex _hates _Stupid Priest-Lady."

Bobby stopped a moment, lost in thought. It had been a while since he'd thought about Stupid Pri- er, Bishop. She'd gotten every single thing right on the nose... so far. He wondered what she'd bet on for their en-

"This is my favorite," Nathan announced, pulling Bobby's thoughts back into the room. He showed him a little red sports car.

"Ah, neat," Bobby said, faking not one shred of the enthusiasm he showed. "I like that."

Nathan paused in consideration, turning something over in his mind. "You can drive it if you want to," he offered.

Bobby got the distinct impression from his hesitation that this was a high, and perhaps rarely bestowed honor. He answered accordingly. "Thank you, Nathan," he said softly, looking him right in the eye. He took the car gently. "Show me how?" Nathan demonstrated his driving technique via sound effects.

"Brrrmmm," he instructed Bobby.

Bobby took over slowly, helping him steer for a while. "Oh, look at that! Look how it hugs those curves. Beautiful." They stopped and he smiled at the boy. "Thank you," he said again. "That was fun."

Nathan looked at Bobby critically, as if trying to see right into his head. "You like Aunt Alex. Like, _like _like her," he observed.

Bobby shifted on the floor, somewhat uncomfortable. They had agreed before that they would let Nathan know they were a couple - do it casually so he could get used to it. "I'm in love with her. Are you okay with that?" he asked sincerely.

But the little boy was giving him that stare again, the one that gave Bobby the distinct impression that his head was transparent. "Are you going to marry my aunt?" he asked abruptly. 

_Oh, great. It runs in the family._

"Someday, maybe," Bobby said, wishing he could give a better answer.

He reconsidered his question. "Are you with her forever ever, though? I mean, like for permnament?"

"Yes. Completely permnament. Foreverever." He said seriously.

He scrunched his little face up in concentration. "Does that mean you're my uncle?"

Bobby melted. He got down to the child's level. "I would _love _to be your uncle, Nathan. But that's up to you. Okay? You can call me whatever you want."

Bobby could see the wheels turning in his tiny head. "Okay." He thought a moment more. "You know," he said informatively. "She's half my aunt and half my mommie." He nodded. "Aunt Andie said that means any man who wants her better be good enough by me." He gestured to himself with his thumb, trying to look tough.

Bobby tried not to smile, feeling that might insult him. "Well, I should hope so. How do I measure up?"

"Big," he answered without hesitation.

xxxxxxxxx

"Supper, kids!"

Bobby headed down the stairs grinning. "He's perfect, Alex," He whispered, leaning in to kiss her on the forehead. 

Bobby excused himself to go to the bathroom, but even from there, he could hear yelling coming from the next room. His partner was fuming about something, and when he walked out of the bathroom right into the conversation, and heard what she was saying, he froze and began looking in earnest for a rock to crawl under. "Oh, come _on_, Dad! We're just going to be _sleeping_! We're not seventeen: I think we can behave ourselves," she insisted.

"I'll sleep on the sofa. It's not a big deal," Bobby said quietly.

"No, you won't, and yes it is. Dad, he is our guest, not to mention the man I love, and he is not sleeping on that lumpy old sofa. He's sleeping in the guest bed with me, end of story." 

"Dad," Danielle jumped in. "It's my house. And I say that Bobby stays up there with her."

"Thank you," Alex said quietly.

She started to walk away, but couldn't resist giving her two cents as she passed. "I also say that since Nathan is way down the hall and sleeps like a rock, you guys should go ahead and party like it's 1999," she said casually.

Bobby groaned. _Just shoot me now._

"Danielle! Are you trying to get my partner killed?" She squeezed Bobby's hand, hoping he understood that this was really going to be okay.

He understood. He wasn't sure he believed her, but he understood.

The three arrived in the kitchen late, and Andrea was already passing around the salad.

"Rabbit food," John commented.

"That's what Lewis says too." A pause. "He used to, anyway. Now, _he _cooks for both of us. Remember that next time you complain about my cooking. Come on, it's good for you, Dad," Andrea insisted, putting the salad dressings on the table.

Bobby ate his rabbit food feeling, in fact, very much like a rabbit under John Eames's predatory watch. He and Alex weren't touching each other more than casually; not really unusual for them, they never felt the need to be overly clingy around others. John seemed to relax a little with every time one of them finished the other's sentence, every time one passed something before the other asked, every time Bobby showed courtesy and interest to another member of the family, which John could clearly see was genuine. He made her laugh, more than she had since she was a little kid.

_This man loves my daughter._

And with that insight, he understood. Alex _hadn't_ made a stupid mistake. She'd been blessed by the patron god of cops and partners.

And Bobby would know exactly who that was, too. Along with all family deities and everything there was to know about the culture in question, including the geography, the climate, the wildlife, and any political unrest in the area.

And that was exactly what she loved. She was really going to go through with this. And he found, with some surprise, that he was glad.

**xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx**

Next week:

Chapter 3: One Moment With You

"Joe's like an old friend that I hope is happy wherever he is." She paused, thinking. "He didn't deserve what happened, so I guess I would change _that _part if I could.

"And then I'd help him pack," she told Bobby gently.


	3. One Moment With You

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

A.N.: I mention a brother briefly, and since I don't think the show gave her brother(s) names, I used the brother's name from 'Eight Ball, Corner Pocket' (a must read). Let me know if you want me to change the name, Dozen and One Stars. 

Another A.N.: Wow! You mention Joe and everyone worries (or hopes) that you're going to go evil! I had this chapter finished first actually, and I never intended to say anything especially bad about him. If you guys think I should, I might indulge in a good game of Whack-a-Joe next time. I never wanted to hurt poor little Joe, who has already taken more abuse in fanfiction than Lynne Bishop and Nicole Wallace combined.

This chappie, and _only _this chappie is rated a little closer to T for sexual dialog. Maybe K++, I guess. 

**Chapter 3: One Moment With You**

**xxxxxxxxxx **

"You couldn't pack a nightshirt? Geeze, Goren, are you trying to torture me?"

He smiled almost shyly. The first time they'd made love, she'd gone (in her words) "uncharacteristically gooey-eyed" over seeing a shirtless Bobby Goren. "You look like one of those gorgeous old marble statues," she'd said. "You know, the ones that have those dumb leaves sculpted over all the interesting parts."

"The leaves weren't really sculpted on. -Hmm.- Pope Pious went around. -Uhnn.- Long after they were sculpted and defac-"

"Useless information later. The Pope is _not _where I want your mind right now, 'k, Bobby?"

Bobby shook the memory, smiling, and came back to the present; in the guest room of Eames's sister's house, tormenting her with partial nudity. He jokingly offered, "If if would make you feel better, I could wear one of yours."

"No, I'll just try to control myself," she said with a completely serious face.

Alex settled deep into their bed, putting her arm over Bobby's shoulder, drawing her face up into his chest. "This is the best Christmas, Bobby. My family loves you. _Nathan _loves you. I haven't been happier since-"

"Please don't finish that sentence, Alexandra. It hurts me." His voice was strained and unnatural. He rolled away and refused to look at her. Alex could tell he was hiding tears. "I know it shouldn't, and it's sick and cruel and unfair and I wouldn't blame you a bit if you smacked me senseless for it, but you have no idea how much that hurts me. It feels like you're calling me...well, 'almost as good as the real thing.' A substitute." 

_This is really getting him_, she thought. He had never _once _called her 'Alexandra,' except in those silly secret admirer notes that weren't supposed to be from him. Not in all the years they'd been partners, friends, then lovers. Not even during the lovemaking when she had a tendency to call him by all three full names and a few other flattering ones she came up with off the top of her head.

Those always made him laugh.

She had a pretty good idea of what this was about, but she didn't tip her hand on that yet. It was better to ignore the implication until she was sure that's what he meant. No sense opening a can of worms he hadn't though of.

"It hurts you when I say I haven't been happier since I was five and my biggest worry was that Seth was going to bury my Matchbox collection in a mud puddle?" she tried. It had, in fact, been _exactly _what she was going to say.

No fibbing.

And she would _never _say what he had been thinking.

He gave a mix of a sigh and laugh in relief as she forced him to roll back toward her. "No, not at all." He turned back, searched her eyes. Sure enough, she knew exactly what he'd meant. She wouldn't let it go now. "I am so sorry, Eames." His switch to her family name was not a distancing tactic as usual: He was reveling in the fact that _his _name was not and never had been a part of her identity. _She's not yours_. "Just... Never mind, Al."

"Can't never mind it." she said, kneading his shoulder reassuringly. "You always mind it. I see it in your pretty eyes, Bobby." She stroked his cheek sadly. "And it's something we need to talk about before... well, before too long." She could tell he was worried. "Bobby, please try to relax. I swear I won't say any of those things you're afraid to hear, because none of them are true. Just tell me what you feel, and I promise you I'll make it feel better."

He glanced up, hopeful. "I see those pictures, Alex. The ones you still keep around your place. Always staring at me and reminding me that even though you're the only one I could ever love, I'll only ever have half of your heart." She was near tears now, but somehow he couldn't be sorry it came up, even if it was hurting her. It had been paining him so long, he was pretty sure he had now shed nearly as many tears about Joe as she ever had. Tears about his own kind of loss, the kind of vague, intangiable, and purely hypothetical loss he was trying so hard to explain without hurting her or driving her away. "If you could, you'd undo it all. Undo everything I am to you.

"I'm not naive enough to claim that I can actually understand what happens...after, but sometimes I still wonder. If we both died tomorrow, who would you..." he couldn't finish.

_We have _got _to work on these abandonment issues_.

But it was a fair question. If the shoe were on the other foot, she'd want to know. And she knew what her honest answer would be.

_Am I a horrible person, Joe, for being closer to him? _she pleaded._ I didn't set out to; it was just something that happened accidentally- suddenly I was more in love than... It's not like I can rank you as individuals, but our _relationship _is just... Please don't hurt because of this. I never want to make you hurt. But, hon, good as you were, you were never inside my head like he is. It just wasn't..._

_I can't help it. I can't draw a line and make sure I never love him an ounce more than I was able to love you. How can even I be thinking these things, Joe? I'm sor-_

_No. I'm not._

She was crying in earnest now, and could only hope that Bobby understood that her tears right now weren't mourning for someone she wanted back. It was guilt because she _didn't_. Everyone had taught her how to handle her grief: No one had told her how to handle _not _grieving.

_Falling in love again would be okay. Everyone always told me to find someone to take his place (Who the hell came up with that disgusting expression anyway? Bobby is not an goddam placeholder!). But to be deeper in love than she ever thought possible with Joe... my poor dead husband who never did a thing to hurt anybody, who was murdered just for trying to do what was right_...

_and I'm laying here telling him that I love my new man better. _

_I can't believe how evil I am._

This conversation was making Alex feel like she was sitting in the Principal's Office.

Getting lectured by a Jewish mother. 

Who had converted and become a nun.

_This love is More. It's Deeper. And I only get to have it because he's not here. It's not like I'm glad he's...But it's good that he's not... _And that's when it occurred to her what she really wanted. And in that moment, her guilt evaporated, because what she truly wanted wasn't sick or cruel at all.

_I want him alive. And well. And somewhere else._

_Irreconcilable differences, _she told him plainly_. And not just the fact that you're dead. (That's pretty damned irreconcilable.) I'm different, Joe, and you just wouldn't be right for me anymore._ _And let's face it, the new Alex isn't very good for who you were, either._

She stroked Bobby's cheek sadly, glad she could finally explain it all to him. "I am a completely different woman now, Bobby. He's not _my _husband, he's the husband of a woman that doesn't exist anymore. That woman is dead and gone and I don't miss her, either. I like the me I am now a lot better. And he's like an old friend that I hope is happy wherever he is. I think of him like that when I see his picture, I don't feel like I'm looking at my husband, and I'm not wanting him back with me." She paused, thinking. "He didn't deserve what happened, so I guess I would change that part if I could.

"And then I'd help him pack," she told Bobby gently. "I'd have to. He could never find his socks," she added matter of factly. 

Bobby tried, really tried, but couldn't surpress the thought: 

_I always know where all _my _socks are._

She lifted Bobby's chin and forced him to look her right in the eye. "I need you to know this, Bobby: I would not take fifty more years with Joe if I had to trade it for one moment with you. This woman that exists now wants to keep you _forever_." She took a moment to let this sink in. "You got that?" 

She looked him in the eye to make sure he was really okay, before she started to settle back into bed. "I never want you to feel like you have to worry about that. You're mine, and you're my keeper; the only one I want. Now get some sleep."

She turned out the light and turned in, making sure for both their sakes to snuggle up as close as she could get, leaving no space between them, brushing his jawline affectionately with her nose. She paused a moment, then decided to say something else that had come to mind. "He never even _attempted _to find...you know...the spot."

_The one you find twice nearly every time. At least three times a week, _she mused. "Feel better now?" 

"Um, yeah," he said, surpised at what that little ego boost did to calm his worries. _Never? Jerk._

"I do. And Alex," he added tentatively, wiping a stray tear off her eyelash. "It's not ever wrong to have any emotion. Don't ever think you should feel guilty about anything you feel." 

_God, I love this man._

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Excuse me while I go puke. I am _never _writing angst again. I am taking the next train out of Sap City and getting off in the Kingdom of Perpetual Fluff where I belong. Once I have compeleted this little journey, I will return with a new chapter.

Next Time:

_Uncle Bobby._ Those words shook him to his core in the best possible way. Bobby couldn't have children of his own because of the schizophrenia genes, and it was something that had hurt him a great deal. It had also kept him from more than halfheartedly pursuing a relationship. Until Alex. She'd already told him she didn't care about that.

He couldn't imagine anything better than sharing this beautiful child with Alex, even if only as their nephew+.


	4. Family Tradition

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

Archiving: You can put this on Amorous Intent if you want, but if you really think anybody goes there for the K+ stories, I have a TV show to sell you.

Disclaimer: Which brings me to the point that I _have _no TV show to sell you.

Reviewers: I love you! Those who do not review: Okay, I still love you, but only because I'm too freakin' nice for my own good.

Rating: Still K+, but I lied: It's once again borderline, not quite T'ish. I don't think anyone will mind. I'm sure you're all just rushing to report me for putting in almost too much sexuality. (Eye roll)

Serious Fluff Ahead. Turn back all those with weak stomi...stomac...stumi...tummies.

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**Chapter 4: Family Tradition**

Bobby came down to the kitchen alone at seven the morning before Christmas. Alex's sisters were already there, along with Danielle's husband. John Eames, to his relief, was nowhere in sight. "Alex is sleeping in," Bobby explained as he poured himself a mug of coffee.

"Wore her out, huh?" Danielle whispered as she passed. 

"Hey, no, we-" he started, tripping over himself, before realizing that she'd said it for her own amusement. She was smirking at his embarrassment.

"Stop baiting him, Dani." Alex said, meandering into the kitchen, yawning. She saw the startled look on Bobby's face and smiled. "I lost my favorite pillow and I smelled coffee." She shrugged. "I couldn't get back to sleep." She kissed his upper arm, a comfortable height for a woman too sleepy to safely be on tiptoe. But Danielle observed her real motive when her nostrils flared just slightly and she took a deep breath. He was doing the same with the top of her head.

"Oh, Sweetie," Danielle said to her husband sardonically. "Why don't you ever smell me good morning?"

Bobby smiled and reddened, suddenly self conscious of their routine.

"Yeah, they're sexy like that," Andrea said unabashedly. "I mean, the first movie they watched together as a couple was rated NC-17," she pointed out.

All jaws in the room dropped, including couple in question. Smirking, the two sisters and brother-in-law resumed heading into the breakfast nook. Finally understanding what she meant, Alex whacked Andrea lightly on the arm as she passed. "It was _Evil De_- oh," she appealed to the leaving crowd, who wasn't listening.

"Who let that twerp pick a buckets-of-blood movie for our first date, anyway?" Alex asked her partner, rubbing her forehead, looking down at the floor. "I blame you," she decided, tapping him lightly on the chest before starting to follow the others out of the room. He stared incredulously at the now empty kitchen as she rapped her fingers against his back.

"Me?! You're the one who wanted to watch gore all day Valentine's Day." He pouted, pretending the shove had hurt. She wasn't buying it, and smirked over his shoulder.

"Only because I was single at the time! Once you got there, I was happy to let Andie sit in other room for the rest of the night, all weekend if need be, but you just had to be nice and invite her back in."

"They don't think she's serious, do they?" He sounded worried. She shook her head. A biting, somewhat sick sense of humor was an Eames family trait. "Well, I'm beginning to think your sisters took out a life insurance policy on me," he said, pulling her arms around his shoulders, making her stand on tiptoe.

"Death by embarrassment?"

"No, death by your father."

She laughed. "Don't be ridiculous." She paused. "You know perfectly well they wouldn't be able to collect if you were killed by one their relatives." She kissed him on the back of the neck and left him to ponder that thought over his coffee, hoping her old man would keep his promise and have that talk with him pretty quick.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Andie ratted the package, getting only a muffled thumping for her efforts. "Cologne?"

Alex scrunched up her nose with distaste. "Neither of us likes smell-interference. It's like wearing a mask. I want _his _smell; I'm not in love with an Avon catalog.

Andrea gave half a laugh to that one, shaking her head. "Sweet. Disturbing. But sweet."

"You're never going to guess what it is. Give up already," Alex insisted.

"It's a...holy cow," Andrea picked up a sloppily wrapped package behind the one in question.

"Now what would he want with one of those?" Alex asked seriously.

But a huge smile had broken out on Andrea's face. "He is going to shoot right over the _moon _when he sees this." She handed Alex the package.

xxxxxxxx

Alex walked into the dining room to find Bobby sitting on the floor with her nephew, surrounded by little plastic animals. "Whatcha' kids doin'?" She squatted down to their level.

"We're playing zoo. You know the difference between crocodiles and alligators, Aunt Alex? 'Cause I do."

"Something about their noses, right?" She beeped his nose for emphasis. She smiled at Bobby, who seemed to be trying very hard not to laugh at something.

"No, silly. Crocodiles have salt glands that secewete sayleen, on their tongues and that's why they live in the ocean, and alligators don't," he reported proudly.

She stood shaking her head. "_Great_, Bobby. I needed another one." She bumped a laughing Bobby's arm chastisingly with her bare foot. He caught her off-guard by keeping her foot, holding her hip in his hand to make sure she wasn't going to tip over. He put her foot on the side of his leg, stroking it absently while he continued to make a lioness stalk a dolphin.

"Bah-bee," Nathan said, drawing the name out in overdone exasperation. "Lions don't eat dolphins!"

He grinned. "Why shouldn't they?" Nathan seemed perplexed by this, his little brain working at it, realizing he had never really thought about it before.

"The things you are teaching him," she said, shaking her head as he gently put her foot back on the ground.

"I'm teaching him to be a free thinker," he said in a completely serious voice.

"But I came in here for a reason." She bent down to his ear. "There's something under the tree that you really gotta see. Trust me on this, hm?"

He nodded and started to stand. "Okay, my man, you think you can handle this crowd on your own for a bit?"

Nathan nodded, still paying attention to the animals.

"Even the platypus?" he checked.

"Ex-pecially the platypus," Nathan assured Bobby, who was already being dragged to the next room, toward the tree.

"Look, look!" She held a package up to his face. The wrapping was a mess, a loose ribbon taped on, the work of a five year old, no doubt. But neither of them could look at anything but the tag.

To: Uncle Bobby

Love: Nathan

Uncle Bobby nearly choked. "And you didn't tell him to...?"

"Nope. If I had talked to him about it, I would have told him that the pretty shiny silver tape isn't for Christmas presents," she said, running her finger over the frayed edge of a piece of duct tape largely covering Rudolf's head.

_Uncle Bobby._ Those words shook him to his core in the best possible way. Bobby couldn't have children of his own because of the schizophrenia genes, and it was something that had hurt him a great deal. It had also kept him from more than halfheartedly pursuing a relationship. Until Alex. She'd already told him that she understood. She wouldn't try to change his mind. She was okay with it.

He knew he should worry about what Nathan's parents would think. What Alex's father would think. Boyfriends aren't family, and kids aren't supposed to get attached. But his heart wasn't listening to that.

It was listening to the wonderful little voice inside him and on this tag telling him that Nathan - beautiful, perfect Nathan - was _their _nephew.

Bobby didn't notice the man standing in the doorway, surveying the scene. Alex did. _'Bout darn time_, she thought. He'd promised her after dinner last night that he wasn't going to raise Bobby's blood pressure unnecessarily. She kissed him lightly and left the room without a word, knowing that if Bobby saw her old man coming before she got out of there, he wasn't going to let her leave.

That had been John's condition. He lets Bobby off the hook, and she stays out of the room while he does it. _If he says _anything _about this I swear I am going to smack him senseless! _Alex thought.

"Bobby, can I talk to you?" Bobby froze. _It's okay_, she mouthed from the doorway, flashing a small smile before disappearing into the kitchen.

"Yes, Sir?"

"John," he insisted.

It flashed through Bobby's mind that some men might prefer to be on a first name basis with another man before they killed him. He did his best to push that thought away.

"When I first found out that my daughter, a detective, was sleeping wi - sorry," he said, seeing the upset that flashed over Bobby's face. "That's what I thought it was, at the time. Well, that she was _romantically involved _with her partner, I thought it was some stupid mistake that she'd made. Giving in to hormones or loneliness or goodness knows what else with someone who was convenient. Bobby started to protest, but thought better of it and kept his mouth shut.

"But after what I've seen, I have to say that I think a person would have to be a complete idiot to..." _Here it comes_, Bobby thought. "Well, to have the kind of connection that the two of you have, and not chase after it for all it's worth." He looked at him seriously. "So I was right the first time: I'm glad you got stuck with my daughter."

Bobby now remembered to breathe. "You have no idea what that means to me, Si- John." 

John looked at him appraisingly. "I think I do," he said simply, leaving Bobby to wonder exactly what it was John knew.

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It was Christmas Eve, and it was time for bed.

_Time for revenge._

Tucked away in their room, Alex had just changed into her pajamas. She turned to her partner. "You do realize, Bobby, that your wardrobe, or lack thereof," she corrected, running her fingers lightly up and down his arms: He would only barely feel it through the sweater he was wearing now. Judging by the look on his face, he was feeling plenty. She moved her fingers up to his neck as she continued. "Has been driving me crazy for the past couple days."

"Uh-huh," he managed.

She started kissing his neck between words. "I know." _Kiss._ "You. And I know that you." _Kiss._ "Have probably been planning what you'll give me for Christmas Eve for a while now." _Kiss._

"Um-hm," he affirmed with all the eloquence he could muster.

"And I know you'll want to make sure." _Kiss. _"That this will be the best Christmas Eve I've ever had." She moved her hands down to his chest. "And you know, Danielle _did _give us her blessing, and it's true about Nathan's sleeping."

"Your f-"

"My old man could sleep through a tornado." _Oh, yeah, he's convinced_. She hid an evil smile. "There is one little problem though." She rubbed his shoulders, moved her mouth back up toward his chin. "Every. Mmmm. Christmas Eve. The whole family." She gave one last cruel kiss to his jawline. "Sleeps under the tree," she finished, losing the sultry voice and attitude.

"Ughhh," he groaned as comprehension of what she'd said dawned. "You're _mean_, you know that?"

She kissed his nose. "I'll make it up to you, I swear." She looked at his face. He was trying to get himself back under control. Her smile slid off. "I'm sorry, Honey, that was too much." She reached to hug him, a light hug, so as not to make matters worse.

To her happy surprise, he just lightly kissed her on the top of her head, and he was smiling into her hair. "No worries. I can _always _one-up you, Al."

Her smirk was back. "Always, huh? You don't think I can out-trick you?"

"Out-trick _me_?" He shook his head. "Four letters Eames-

"A-B-B-A," he said conclusively.

She tilted her head away from him, hands on her hips. "Okay, I have to admit, marrying Swedish dance hits and Jamaican culture with a holiday about naked, flying babies _was _pretty creative, but it isn't the end all of wacky surprises." She poked his chest, challenging. "So we'll just see about that one-up-manship, Goren."

xxxxxxxxxx

Danielle put her hands on her hips and surveyed the room, frowning. "Sleeping arrangement's set then. Pajamas ready? Oh, right, Bobby, do you need to borrow a...?" She let the sentence drift off. Her husband was a fairly big guy, but there was no way any of his nightshirts would fit Bobby.

Bobby grinned. "It's okay, I packed one." He glanced sideways at Alex as, sure enough, he pulled a neatly folded nightshirt out of his bag.

"You jerk," Alex said affectionately, smiling as he headed out to change. She opened their sleeping bag and crawled in, waiting for her partner to get back from the bathroom.

Nathan watched Bobby as he came back into the room. He had an appraising look on his face, as if his mind was fumbling around an idea. He kept watching, quietly, as Bobby slipped into the sleeping bag behind his partner.

"Ca' I sleep with Alex and Bobby?" He finally piped up to his parents.

"Only if they say it's okay, Hon."

Alex didn't have to look behind her to know that Bobby was grinning. She opened her arms as much as she could without budging off the floor. "Come 'ere you little Backache. We would love that." He eagerly snuggled in between the two. "I want a kiss from my big man," she told him. Nathan gave her a big smack on the lips, giggling. "And my little boy." She gave her lover an intimate, if G rated, kiss.

"Yucky," Nathan informed them.

"Oh, did you hear that, Bobby? We're yucky. I'll give you yucky, kid!" And she proceeded to kiss the child loudly all over his face and belly, making him squeal with laughter.

Bobby, however, was completely lost in wonderment. Settled here on Christmas Eve, under a family tree curled up beside the woman he loved, and her own little child, whom he adored. He wondered if he could ever make this _his _family. Would they welcome him into it? Would Alex _want _him to become a part of it?

For now, at least, the three were like their own little nuclear family.

_Which of course, is not a completely apt metaphor, as nuclei are -_

_Down, Bobby_, he told himself.

xxxxxxxxxxx

Alex's mind was occupied, too. She laid there quietly, fingers stroking a soft, smooth object in her pocket. It was too bulky to properly fit into her pajama pants condom pocket, but was making a valiant, seam-bursting effort at it anyway, as she wasn't letting it off her for an instant.

Tomorrow was the day. 

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Hmm, maybe I should make you wait till Christmas for the next chapter. Whatdya' think?

And I'm putting it to a vote: 8 pt or 10 pt font?


	5. Puzzle it Out

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

Disclaimer: I own this universe of CI. I have the documents. I'd show them to you, but in this universe, all legal documents are invisible. Tough noogies! ;P

Thank you for all the reviews. You guys are the best. As for Alex's pocket...You'll find out in this chappie...maybe. And thanks for the font votes. Unfortunately, I don't think I have a choice in it. seems to be shrinking my font on its own. If anybody knows how to change this please tell me as 10 seems to be preferred.

**Chapter 5: Puzzle it Out**

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Alex was woken with a resounding _fwump _on her gut. "It's Christmas, wake up! Wake up! Wake up! Wakeup-wakeupwkup!"

"Merry Christmas to you, too, Nathan." She managed to make her voice relatively cheerful despite the fact that she would really rather bang her head against the floor in aggravation (which she probably would, the way he was bouncing.) than act chipper. _Did I actually have this guy _inside _me?!_

His eyes were resolutely closed, but Bobby was wide awake and smirking. 

This did not spare him.

"Way-ake uh-up!" Nathan insisted, grabbing his cheeks and shaking. Bobby snatched the kid and lifted him up.

"Gotcha!" The little boy squealed happily. Nathan got Merry Christmas kisses from the entire clan before settling back into Alex's lap.

The gift giving was organizationally shuffled. Everybody got one gift and as soon as one was "delivered" to the last person, the tearing began. 

"Do I even want to know?" Alex wondered nodding her head toward Nathan's gift from Bobby. He looked away innocently, pretending he hadn't heard the question.

"Cool!" The paper had been ripped away with gusto, revealing a radio-controlled robot hammerhead. It was supposed to be an educational toy, something from the Discovery Channel store, actually, but every child in the world, Bobby included, knew perfectly well no child ever learned anything from a robotic animal other than:

Robots are cool.

"It dives and everything! It's eyes light up! Neat!"

If it had been any other man in the world, Alex would have thought he was trying to buy the child's affection. Not Bobby: He wanted to help Nathan play with it. "I thought it was cool," he explained.

Nathan hurried over to hug him. "I love you, Bobby."

Bobby gladly returned the hug, doing nothing for just a moment but enjoying being loved by a child. He glanced up at Danielle for permission. Parents don't like kids to get too attached to the boyfriends in the family. _Not until there was more._ Bobby shook the thought. 

Alex poked her sister and whispered something at her. Bobby couldn't pick up too much of it. "...wants...no...kayta...ell...lah...sim."

Glad for the translation , Danielle nodded. "I love you, too, Nathan." He checked John's face, and to his surprise, he was almost smiling. _Accepting _Bobby was one thing, but to be okay with inviting him into the child's life so intimately...he was shocked that John seemed happy with that while they were still only lovers.

"Gat-ah open _yours,_" Nathan said with determination, handing him the package.

Alex tried not to laugh as she watched Bobby carefully take off each piece of duct tape, trying not to rip the packaging. After having watched him rip into every package before it with abandon, he was opening this one slowly to the point of ridiculous, taking an inordinate amount of time with each piece of tape. It occurred to Alex that this was likely the first present from a child he had opened in some time, maybe since he was one himself. Fumbling absently with an intricate wooden puzzle box from Andrea to both of them, Alex was relishing Bobby's present-unveiling almost as much as he clearly was. He lovingly tore the paper away from the label and stowed that away in his pocket for safekeeping.

The touching gesture was lost on Nathan, who was huffing at Bobby's patience. Giving in, he tore the final seam.

It would have looked, to most adult eyes, like a lump of clay somewhat indecisive on the topic of what, precisely, it was supposed to be. But to Bobby, the imprint of a glass in the middle, something that the clay had been formed around, gave it away. He couldn't be sure, but he took a gamble.

"This is a beautiful coaster, Nathan." And he meant it. The little 'N' on the bottom with the date made it no less precious to Bobby than platinum, even if the rest of it was rather nondescript.

Nathan beamed. "I made it," he said unnecessarily.

"It's perfect. Thank you." Bobby kissed him on top of the head. He set his coffee on it, trying to ignore the way it was tipping just slightly to the left.

Alex gestured to the one remaining package, the one Andrea had been nosing around. She was sitting, legs curled in front of her toying with the puzzle box. Distracted from his remaining present, Bobby rearranged himself so he was sitting around her, reaching over her in an attempt to "help."

Alex shrugged her shoulders, moving Bobby's hand off the puzzle. "Stop that," she said, sounding a little too much like Nathan.

"The tag said it was for both of us," he pointed out, reaching over her shoulders again.

"Yeah, and if I don't get to it first, you finish it in five minutes and I'll see how you do it, and it'll be spoiled for me. Shoo." He smiled a little at the admonishment, but didn't stop. "Don't make me squish you," she warned. A few seconds passed. "I mean it." A few more. "I warned you." She pushed off with her feet and sent them both tumbling backwards onto the sofa, landing with her back square on his chest.

"Ow!" he yelled, wincing.

Her expression changed immediately and she rolled herself gracefully off him and onto the floor. "Baby, are you al-"

"Ha!" he cried triumphantly, snatching up the puzzle.

"Ratfink! _You _still have one left to open. Gimme that and open your present. It's from me," she added, tapping him with her foot.

He shrugged and picked up the last package, shaking it first, just to tease. He opened it, and it definitely wasn't what he'd been expecting. "A mystery puzzle?"

"Wondered how you'd do with a killer you couldn't creep out," she teased. "Have to do this the old-fashioned way."

He grinned. "There's something..." He put his head down near the box and sniffed. Alex smiled. She'd been wondering how long it would take him to notice that it had been tampered with. That there was something very different about it.

"I had it personalized," she explained, looking smug.

He removed the lid carefully, pulling out the bubble wrap that had been disguising the sound, and pulled out a piece. He could see that it didn't have the usual sheen of a puzzle piece. It was matte on top, and he made out, with the light just right, a slightly rough coating on it. He held it up to his nose. It smelled woody, with a little fresh soil mixed in. He rubbed the rough texture a little. The smell grew stronger. The picture was a series of little green strokes. and bits of brown. Leaves.

"Got a friend in a sticker factory," Alex said, obviously very pleased with herself. Had to twist his arm and call in an old favor, but I got it."

"You mean, it's..."

"Scratch and sniff," she confirmed. He laughed out loud and grabbed her up in a bear hug, kissing her fiercely.

"I can't believe you sometimes." She raised an eyebrow. "Oh, yes, I do mean that in a good way. Nobody else would ever think of that. That's so...you. So us."

She kissed him again, looked at him appraisingly as they separated. The best way to get him to do what she needed him to... "Bet you can't solve it before New Year's Eve," she challenged, swinging her feet whimsically over the edge of the fancy sofa.

"Who says I have to do it now?" he said, playing. He had every intention of diving into it as soon as he felt he had thanked her properly.

"_I _do, do it now."

"You bet, huh? What's the stakes?"

"If _I _win, no renting those subtitled movies you like to make me watch for... a month. If _you _win... well, can't talk about that in front of our nephew," she said casually under her breath.

That sealed it.

Naturally, he'd jumped to the obvious explanation for her side of the deal. _I have fooled the most knowledgeable detective in the history of the NYPD,_ she thought, relishing the moment. 

"You're on." Getting a nod of permission from Danielle to commandeer the coffee table, he started to lay out the edge pieces.

"Back in a bit," Alex said simply, kissing him on the cheek before following Andrea toward the kitchen with Nathan and shark close on her heels.

"Where are you going?"

"To help Andrea clean up." 

"I thought you wanted me to do the puzzle." 

"Yeah, get goin'." She tapped his thigh and walked out of the room.

"I can't solve a case without you," he said plaintively.

"Bobby," she said gently, leaning in the doorway. "It's not a _case_. It's a jigsaw puzzle with a clue in it and a fifth-grade, Encyclopedia Brown/Nancy Drew level mystery booklet attached. I think you can manage without me."

"Okay, I know, I just mean I can't have any _fun _solving a case unless you're there."

She smiled, touched, and glad to know his confidence level wasn't quite _that _disastrous. "Bobby," she said pointedly. "This puzzle was personalized for _you_. Just. For. You." He was pouting. "You work on it on your own for a while, then I'll come help you with it," she conceded. 

"When?"

She rolled her eyes. "Do it on your own until you've had some sort of brilliant revelation, let me know what you think," she paused, "Then we'll do it together, 'k?" She was smiling slyly, apparently delighting in his grouchiness at her absence. She turned and headed back into the kitchen. "Just let me know when you figure something out," she tossed back over her shoulder.

"Why's he have to do it now?" Andrea wondered out of his earshot.

Alex grinned slyly. "You'll hear before too long." She squatted down to Nathan's level. "Wanna do me a really big favor?" Nathan nodded dutifully. "Go tell Uncle Bobby that it's good to start puzzles with the letter pieces." She made sure to speak slowly. "Can you remember that?" He nodded again. "And don't tell him I told you." She put her finger to her lips conspiratorially.

"Uncle Bobby?" (After more times than he'd kept count of, he still grinned like an idiot every time he heard those words.) "Aunt Alex said something about letters first, 'K?" he reported. Out of sight, Alex rolled her eyes. "Did I do it right?" he asked loudly, running back to his aunts.

"Close enough, little man," she praised, picking him up for a kiss.

Bobby laughed. _Way to be sneaky, Al_. Actually, it was exactly what he had been doing. Words were always easiest to match when there was no picture to reference, which there never was in a mystery puzzle, a good one, anyway. He'd found the word pieces. Only a few. But there was something strange about them. The writing was painted on top in shiny red... _nail polish?_ The letters were well disguised: Only tiny fractions of letters on each piece. The pieces were irregular and not completely interlocking, which didn't help, but he liked it that way. More challenging. The words were on a banner, also painted on.

_A lowercase 'a'. That's a lowercase 'y' there with a space after it. _

It couldn't be.

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Ooooh, how dramatic of me!

BTW: I lied about the pocket thing. I get to torture you a little longer. (As if you don't already know.)


	6. Weirder

**Infinity**

**By LMR**

Okay, we're here - last chappie. Everyone who reads but doesn't review: It's okay if you want to do that, but you gotta know, you owe this whole thing to those who do, because they're rockin' my world and making me update like a fanfic writin' fool. Feel good and guilty 'bout that, 'k?

Disclaimer: I don't own CI and I'm not getting anything for this. I am also not getting kickbacks from the twist tie industry, believe it or not.

**Chapter 6: Weirder **

**xXx**

Alex had told Bobby that she'd had no ton of bricks moment when it all became clear; when it came to her, all at once in some rush of ecstatic horror, that she'd fallen in love. She'd told him about her wardrobe moment before the Broadway show last February, when she'd found herself wanting to bludgeon herself right against the closet door, that it had made her quit trying to run away from it. But that had just been the hay that snapped the proverbial dromedarial lumbar, as she'd put it. She had known before that that she was falling for him. It was something she'd accepted as background noise in her emotional landscape.

Like elevator music, she'd said.

Realizing that she was doing her level best to make his jaw to drop at the sight of her was more of a green light than a whack up-side the head.

He remembered _his _moment very clearly. 

It was that evil little psychologist who thought she knew everything. _Well, she _did _know everything,_ he thought pointedly. _That was the problem._ She sat there oozing her false benevolence at them in her paisley and purple therapy room. He'd read on Eames's expression that, had they not been talking to an important witness, she would have been saying something about the decor being bad enough to... no. It was ugly enough to choke a... no. It was so nauseating that... hm. _Too bad that telepathy doesn't extend to the complexity of punch lines: I got nothin'._

He could have sworn he saw a smug expression cross Eames's face.

But as soon as Bobby had started to play his little cage-rattling game with that nasty little know-it-all therapist, she'd gotten defensive and attacked.

She'd made him, through and through.

"You," she'd started confidently. "Have the manner of an abandoned child. Your father, I'm guessing?" She cruelly put a slight questioning sound to the end of the sentence, as if she expected him to confirm it. She leaned in, chin on her fist as if showing keen interest in her makeshift client. "And the hovering, hesitant presence of a caretaker. You were saddled with a very ill person. You raised yourself, didn't you, detective?" She'd swung her foot around a little, delighting in her insight.

He could never keep his face blank when they were that close to the truth. His expression changed, he could feel it. He could almost see his own eyes getting that vague expression he wore when hurt. _Don't look so much at the floor_, he told himself. _But don't look at her too much either, or it will _look _like you're not trying to look at the floor._

He was giving consideration to the effectiveness of looking exactly halfway between her and the floor when Alex had snorted. "You might want to readjust the antenna on your cosmic vibes, doc, because you just hit about two feet away from your target." He was horrified for a moment, but then, shaming him for doubting her at all, she'd finished, "Now how 'bout you tell us something about _Goren_." She gestured to where he was sitting on the hideous purple sofa.

Two feet away.

Eames had calmly examined the shocked look on the psychologist's face, then smiled. "That's what I thought."

And in that moment, he had understood everything.

"Um," he'd stammered a few minutes later, holding open the door from the hallway to the parking lot. "Eames, that was...You didn't have to..." He looked down at the sidewalk as he talked.

"The more she doubts her own observations, her own intuition," Eames rattled on professionally as if she hadn't noticed anything off about the situation. "The easier it will be for you to play her like a cat with a ball of yarn." She beeped open both car doors and stood expectantly, waiting for him. She usually just got in.

"But Eames," he'd insisted.

"What?" She asked incredulously over the roof of the SUV, with only the slightest hint of a smile on her face. Or maybe she was just squinting from the sun behind him.

Either way, he got the message.

_I will always defend you. And I will never tell you._

He nodded. "Nothing," he said softly without any trace of the dismissiveness that usually comes with the word.

_Thanks._

_I love you. _

_Oh, smeg, I hope she didn't see that last one!_

xXx

And now, it had come to this puzzle. These words. It couldn't be.

It was.

_A lowercase 'a'. That's a lowercase 'y' there with a space after it. A question mark: That goes at the end, after a lowercase 'e', and that 'm' fits right in front of it. 'me?' The other, the capital 'M' goes at the beginning. Okay, that's the top of two 'r's, right there, right before the 'y'._

'Marry me?' the puzzle asked.

xXx

Alex gestured for a moment before getting into the food. She slipped a twist tie up through her ring, tied it off, then took both off her finger and set them on the counter. She didn't really feel like spending an hour putting the bands back together today, or worse, loosing one of them somewhere in that nasty cranberry sauce Danielle always made.

"So, Alex, Bobby's ring still on that right hand?" Andrea wondered, assaulting their duck with unmitigated enthusiasm.

Alex didn't miss a beat in butchering the potato she was working on. "So, Andrea. Your nose still everyplace it shouldn't be?"

"I'm just saying," she said, gesturing loosely with the chef's knife. "It's been ten months. Not to mention seven years. You know he's not going anywhere." She smiled. "You're already there, Alex. Might as well make it official."

"We'll see what happens," Alex said coolly. "You need help with th-" 

"_**YES!!!!!**_" 

Alex smiled broadly and made a mad dash for the living room, leaving Andrea bewildered in the kitchen. Andie followed her sister out to the tree, found the couple in the middle of the room, Alex wrapped completely around him and lifted easily up off the ground, kissing and laughing at the same time.

Andrea picked up bits of talking between quick kisses. "Brilliant. Love you. So much. Only. Woman. In the whole. World who could. Mmmmmm. Come up with. A. Weirder. Proposal. Than I could."

"Gotta keep you on your toes, Detective. And you left a tough act to follow, you know. Put me down now." He complied. "But I'm not completely without regard for tradition. I do want to do this right." She pulled the little velvet box out of her pocket.

Once he had gathered his jaw up off the floor, Bobby laughed. "Isn't this a little bit backward?"

"Bobby, everything we do is backwards, upside down, inside out, and all around screwy. I don't think this one will raise an eyebrow. I'd kneel," she explained simply, "But I'd be proposing to your pants, and while that's not an entirely unpleasant place to be, I'd really like to see your face right now." She opened the box, and wasn't disappointed.

For just a moment, Bobby forgot to breathe.

It was another platinum puzzle ring, a thicker band, the interweaving strands creating an infinity sign in the front.

She lifted it out carefully, so not to let the strands fall apart. He offered his left hand, and she gestured for the right instead. "I don't want a different engagement ring," she explained. "My wedding ring is in the kitchen. With a twist tie: You'll learn to love twist ties, trust me. We'll switch them over on the day." She looked down, suddenly sad. "They match too well," she said, somewhat dejected.

He nodded, understanding the problem. "They'll make us. We'll have to take them off for interrogation. For witnesses."

"Well, we'll worry about that when we go back to work," she decided, kissing the ring on his hand. "We've got a little bit of smarts between us: We'll work something out."

"Whatsit?" Nathan wanted to know. The commotion around the tree had drawn him away from the bathtub where he'd spent the whole morning cavorting with the shark he'd lovingly named "Hammie."

Alex detached herself from her fiancé, and lowered herself to her nephew's level. "Honey, Uncle Bobby and I are getting married. That sound good to you?" She brushed a stray bit of hair out of his face, lifted his chin a little.

He grinned. "Uncle, Bobby?" he called, craning his little neck.

Bobby sat on the floor. "Yeah?"

"Can I be ring bear?"

Bobby hesitated, turned back to Alex. "I get to chose the men for the ceremony, right Al? I mean, my choice? No argument?" She nodded, conceding and confused. She had been counting on Nathan for the ring bearer. Surely Bobby understood that?

"I don't know, Nathan. You can be a ring bearer, I _guess_, but that's not so important, not enough for you. And you're a big guy, five, right? Nah, that's a baby thing." He looked the child right in the eye. "You're the most important man in your aunt's life. We would be honored if you would be our Best Man." He peeked out of the corner of his eye for Alex's reaction to this bizarre proposal (_like she could talk about bizarre proposals_, he thought). Her face was priceless. Stunned. Touched. Completely enamored.

_You are an amazing man._

"I like this idea," She said after Bobby had gotten his hug. "You can watch 'SpongeBob' for your bachelor party. Preferable, I think." 

"But Alex, you know that I would never have one of _those _kind..."

"I know," she laughed, then paused thoughtfully for a moment. "You probably prefer 'Blue's Clues.'" She squeezed his arm. "Celebration notwithstanding, the potatoes need mashing." She kissed his cheek and headed back for the kitchen. After a quick hug (_We love you, Bobby_), Andrea followed.

John rested his hand on Bobby's shoulder. "Congratulations, Robert. She told me she had no doubts about your answer, or she never would have done it in front of everyone." So that was when she'd lowered her voice in the den, he realized. John had asked how serious, and she hadn't let him hear that part. He could almost hear the conversation in his head: _I'm going to ask him to marry me, and there's not a doubt in my mind he'll say yes._

"Welcome to the family, Bobby." Mrs. Eames hugged him.

Bobby was touched. _Too _touched, as a matter of fact. He could feel his throat getting heavy and lumpy, and had to force his composure. It would be so horrible if he- 

"Hey, Beanstalk, come help me with this, it's too high!"

He mumbled an 'excuse me,' to Mrs. Eames and hurried to help Alex grab the meat platter from the top shelf.

He was almost certain Andrea had gotten it out from the cupboard under the counter yesterday.

xXx

Alex was pacing the living room, cell in hand. They had debated over lunch who the first call outside the family went to. "Debated, threw out the same name simultaneously two seconds after the topic was raised, whatever," Danielle had observed.

"Cap- Jimmy, I know," she corrected herself. "Yeah, and you too. I got big news. Well, I _hope _you'll think it's good. I think you will. Ross will blow a gasket. Yeah, that's it, all right. No, _he _didn't. _I _did, couple hours ago."

Deakins's response was so loud Bobby could hear it from across the room. "Yes!!!"

"Okay," Alex teased. "Are you so happy because we've just made a wonderful commitment that changes our lives for the better and we're going to have the best day of our lives in a few months and a great life together after...

"Or did you win the betting pool this time?" She turned to her fiancé and whispered. "Both," she informed him.

"Yeah, thanks. And they're in order for you, too. Oh. Too bad." She turned to Bobby again. "He has to split the winnings for the date and for the fact that I asked. Those were both called by two different betters." She paused, listening; rolled her eyes.

"Don't tell me..." Bobby started.

"I won't," she said wearily, making it clear that yes, it was.

**xXx**

Thanks, guys, your reviews have meant so much, and yes, go right ahead and brag, you all figured it out about three chapters ago!

BTW: I just heard a _must-listen _for BA 'shippers: Tal Bachman's 'You Love (Like Nobody Loves Me).' It fits them so well it could have been written for them (had it not been written about seven years too early). Thought I'd share.


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